New Books Network Sarah James, "The Politics of Failed Policies" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Mar 27, 2026
Sarah James, assistant professor and former K–12 teacher and principal, studies how data and politics shape recognition of policy failure. She traces the book’s origins in education and criminalized truancy. She compares Washington and Texas to show how data choices affect whether failures are visible. She discusses how analysis itself is a political tool and explores reforms and interpretation in policy making.
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Principal Turned Scholar Investigates Policy Failure
- Sarah James recounts her move from K-12 principal to graduate school to study recurring education policy failures.
- Her frontline experience with schools, teaching math and history, motivated the research question about why harmful policies persist.
Policy Diffusion Assumes Success By Default
- James noticed policy diffusion literature assumes experiments generally succeed, but many education reforms produce clear harms instead.
- This led her to ask when and how failed policies get recognized as failures distinct from partisan reversal.
Texas Repealed Truancy Laws While Washington Stayed Punitive
- James discovered Texas criminalized truancy and later repealed those harsh laws, while Washington kept punitive policies despite being data-forward.
- The contrast between Texas repeal and Washington's persistence puzzled her and drove archival investigation.
